Alice's Wonderland ? WIP

[ThomasR]

Here's a map that I already shared at an earlier stage of advancement on my twitter account. I labeled it a study in black and white at the time. To be honest, it wasn't that at all.
Last saturday, my wife and I were quietly staying at home gathering forces before the big day. At the beginning of the afternoon, my wife felt some contractions. We were sure this was a false labor and waited to see if they passed while measuring their frequency.

While monitoring her state, as pressure went up, I started doodling that map trying to get a feeling similar to Max's black and white gems. After 2 hours I stopped, we had to go to the hospital to meet our beloved Alice. I'll further this map not really knowing if I'll stick to black and white and make it a grim place or turning it into Alice's Wonderland and going full color. I might do two versions

No scanner at hand so it'll be a picture for now.

IMG_7542.jpg

The land in the east is a charred land with rivers of lava making the sea a boiling strait. Vapor rises up, is swept west by the winds and stopped by the mountains making the land east of the mountains a lush kingdom. South is like the south of Italy or Greece. North and west is a desert.

Critic welcome.

[Rongar]

Looks great! My only nitpick would be that the mountains could do with a few branching ridges.

[- JO -]

That's a map with a nice story !!!!
I like the whole thing... and wait for the color to give more life to it !
I'm looking forward to the little round pictures : It gives a lot of new stories to the map too...
For those mountains, I'm sure you planed to add some relief strokes, to give them a more natural look
Anyway, that's a lovely wonderland !!!

PS : you started to work on a map for the happy anouncement (starting from an echography, if I remember well ?) How is it coming ?

[Mouse]

I love maps like this

Looking forward to the rest of the WIP

[Tom]

Awesome story and awesome map Thomas!! Greetings for your Alice!
The map is very nice, I expecially like the coasts, hills and rivers. Maybe you could work a bit more on the mountains shades, just some linework on right or left side.

[ThomasR]

@ Rongar : Thanks ! You're not the first one to make that critic about my mountain chains. The fact is that I can do connected mountains but I do not really like that. Land not being territory, I chose to draw single peaks because they suit my needs better. I know that connected mountains could say "regional map" a bit more but I've got my quirks

@ - JO - : Thanks a lot Joel ! I'll try to color it indeed. About the little circles, they are awful like this, I think I'l redo them digitally to get something prettier. For the mountains, they'll be shaded for the black & white version as for the color version(s). The birth announcement card hasn't advanced much but I'll have to work on it soon. It's customary to send them to family and friends during the first month after the birth. You'll see some news soon

@ Mouse : Thanks Mouse, I love those too.

@ Tom : Thanks a lot Tom ! I guess the coastlines have become my strong suit. I try to do top down coasts with an iso flavor. It gives a more adventurous feel to the maps. I'll do the highlights and shades like I did them on my Sunset Coast series. For now, there's only two hours of work. I realize I work way faster without a computer between me and the map

[ChickPea]

Map looks great and I hope you'll colour it. I think it'd be wonderful to show a beautifully coloured map to Alice a few years down the line and say this is what I was working on the day you were born.

[Meshon]

Wow! I'm sorry I missed the news before, but congratulations! It is also a good-looking map!

Cheers
Meshon

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

[ThomasR]

Thanks ChickPea ! Yeah, color will work pretty well I guess. The first idea was a rather grim setting so, I guess there'll be three versions.

Thanks Meshon !

[Ilanthar]

Three versions for different vibes? I love your ambition !
It looks very good, I especially love the "hand-like" peninsula in the middle, and the parchment title is great.